Editorial Archive

After seven years, Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council Director Kate Wilkes announced last week her retirement effective Aug. 1, 2014. TDC board members and other community and business leaders recognized and thanked her for leading the county’s tourism development efforts through some challenging times. We only have to look back four years to the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill to understand that it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Wilkes.

The county originally handled its own recycling but in 2012 determined it was more cost effective to contract the service to a professional provider. The county entered into a contract with West Florida Recycling, which also brought the added convenience of “single stream recycling.” In other words, residents no longer needed to separate different types of recyclables.

For the second consecutive year, a tourist visiting Navarre Beach from Louisiana has died in the Gulf of Mexico. In both cases, the victims entered the water in red flag conditions and were west of the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier, not in the designated swimming area patrolled by Navarre Beach lifeguards.

Santa Rosa County reported that the local area received 26 inches of rain during a 30-hour period last week. The saturated ground could not take any more water, so it started to runoff and fill yards, streets, homes and businesses.

The Santa Rosa County Commissioners voted April 24 to close all 21 drop-off recycling locations in the county until further notice. The news release said they would be closed due to health and safety risks from the overwhelming volume of recycling materials not be collected of processed by the county’s contractor, West Florida Recycling.

As Mother’s Day approaches, we are reminded of how much Mother’s give to make life good for their children. Having worked closely with the families of Special Olympics over the years, I am amazed at the love, care and hard work that go into parenting a child with special needs. Local organizations such as Special Olympics can give families a much-needed outlet and support for their unique life challenges from day-to-day. I wanted to share a letter I received from the mother of a new athlete in our program that really touched my heart.

Does it seem like we’ve had more than our fair share of rain? If you think so, then you are right. According to the National Weather Service, the Pensacola area on average receives just more than 4 inches of rain in April. However, so far this month, rainfall totals have exceeded 13 inches. Average precipitation year-to-date should total around 18 inches, but we’ve already surpassed 30.

November may seem far away on the calendar, but it is right around the corner for many of the elected officials in Florida. As the Legislative Session kicks off in Tallahassee, they have their eyes on the prize, but their re-election dreams may be getting in the way of accomplishing some big goals of the people of Florida.

When we covered the Navarre version of the Great American CleanUp, coordinated by Santa Rosa Clean Community System Inc., we didn’t know the Krewe participated. Our photographer spotted the bright yellow shirts of the NJROTC, talked with the cadets and took their picture.

The Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners will hold their regular meeting today at 9 a.m. in the Tiger Point Community Center, 1370 Tiger Park Lane, Gulf Breeze. That’s right, the Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners for perhaps the first time ever is holding a regular meeting in south Santa Rosa County, not in Milton.